Aggieland to honor Sept. 11 heroes
Honoring
The military
and ﬁrst
responders will
be recognized on
the ﬁeld during
the pre-game
ceremonies
Saturday at
Kyle Field.

Rebecca Bennett
The Battalion
The excitement of Saturday’s football game
against Louisiana Tech will be juxtaposed
with the solemn remembrance of those who
were lost nine years ago in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
At a University where the sacrifices of the
military are deeply entrenched in a shared history and culture, Aggies are especially aware of
the honor due to the men and women of the
United States’ armed forces who gave their lives
in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Fittingly, the official dedication of the renovated Military Walk will happen at 9 a.m. Saturday, a date intentionally chosen for its significance. Special guests include Gov. Rick Perry,
class of 1972 and former member of the Corps

of Cadets, and Don A. Hughes, the 1951 A&M
graduate who donated $4 million to the restoration project.
“As you travel along this walk, may you follow in the footsteps of those who have gone
before with honor and optimism — and with
the intent to pave the way for future generations
of Aggies who will take their own bold steps,
walking this way with integrity, dedication to
excellence and commitment to selfless service,”
Hughes said, as quoted in the program for Saturday’s formal ribbon-cutting ceremony.
With a number of Aggies serving on the
frontlines in the Middle East, it is appropriate
that the Military Walk should serve as a symbol
for those who have determinedly marched forth

hen someone dies, there is grief. There is
pain. There is a sense of loss. And all those
things come in different shapes and sizes. But
when someone commits suicide, those who survive suffer from anger, guilt, regret and other confusing feelings.
I know this because I lost my dad to suicide.

Photo illustration by Matt Young — THE BATTALION

I know many of you know this
because you, too, knew and loved
someone who did the same horrible
thing.
Suicide is something we are afraid
to talk about. I know I am. In fact,
I debated over and over in my head
whether or not to write this column.
But if I am going to tell the students
at A&M to talk about suicide, then I
need to talk about it too.
Surveys show that one in 10 college students has suicidal thoughts.
That means that in our lecture
classes of 100 students, 10 students
are thinking about ending their lives.
Those students are someone’s son or
daughter, best friend or brother or sister. Those thoughts they have can be
conquered if people give them hope.
You should take time to learn
the signs of a possible suicide. On
our campus, close to 50,000 people
would be qualified to help save someone’s life. And saving one person’s
life will undoubtedly save those close
to them from suffering heartache for
the rest of their lives.
I say this, because I wish I could
have given my dad some hope. I wish
I could have spared my brothers that
horrible feeling the night we got the
call. I wish I would have known what
to do when I saw the signs, because
now I ask myself “what ifs” every
day. What if I had called him more?

What if I had gone
to see him more
often? What
if I had done
something to
give him that
right amount of
Megan Ryan hope to keep
senior English him going one
major and more day? I
managing editor don’t want
anyone else to
wonder those things or wish they
would have known. Let’s take some
initiative and help those who feel
they cannot help themselves.
For those of you who have
considered taking your life, reconsider. Though you might think you
don’t have any other options, you’re
wrong. Suicide is sometimes romanticized in novels and plays, but there
is nothing romantic or heroic about it
in real life.
Frankly, if you take a step to
end your life, many people will be
devastated. I know if my dad could
have seen the number of people who
showed up to his funeral, he might
have thought twice before pulling
that trigger.
So, I’m begging you: think twice.
Suicide doesn’t just affect the person
who committed it. Have some faith
that things will get better for the sake
of those who love you.

Counselors stress being informed, recognizing signs
Megan Ryan
The Battalion
One out of every 10 college students has
suicidal thoughts, said Kerry Hope, a personal
counselor for Texas A&M’s student counseling services. Today is World Suicide Prevention Day, and there are steps to take to prevent
that 10 percent of students from doing something permanently heartbreaking to others.
“We can’t prevent all suicides, but most
suicides are preventable,” Hope said. “It is
the taboo that surrounds the whole issue of

suicide that makes people afraid to talk, and
the silence about suicide is a problem.”
Hope provides Question, Persuade and Refer Gate Keeper Training Classes for students,
staff and faculty on the A&M campus.
“The training teaches what the signs and
symptoms are, not only obvious signs but
subtle ones as well,” she said. “Obviously
someone who talks about their own death
or seems obsessed with death or talks about
suicide in a joking manner is at risk. It could
also be someone who feels isolated, ostracized

or changes from the normal way they are. It
may be someone who is usually very social
and suddenly withdraws.”
Hope said that while depression is the
number one cause of suicide, other things
like unanticipated loss or financial turmoil are
triggers as well.
“What you get when you talk to someone who is suicidal is that they feel hopeless,”
Hope said. “They feel there is no way they
can get around it. People who are suicidal
don’t want to be dead; they just can’t figure

Crime can happen any place, any time
Melissa Appel
The Battalion
With the beginning of classes
and the return to the normal hustle and bustle of a large university
campus, students often find the
large crowds of the Twelfth Man
to be a reassurance of community,
a representation of the unity of the
Aggie spirit and a reminder of the
core values that Aggies share.

Pg. 1-09.10.10.indd 1

These sensations can simultaneously entice a feeling of security and
trust within a community founded
on the Aggie Honor Code. However, law officials stress that even
the Aggieland campus is not a
completely danger-free zone.
“Students should always be
conscious of their personal safety
and never let their guard down,”
said Sgt. Allan Baron of the Uni-

versity Police Department Crime
Prevention Unit. “Crime can happen any place, any time, and the
college campus is no exception.”
Across a large and widespread
campus, students often find themselves walking lengthy distances
both during the day for classes and
at night for organizational meetings. Walking alone can be one
See Safety on page 7

out a way to go on living with the emotional
or physical pain they are experiencing.”
Hope said the main point of her presentations was to teach people how to recognize
suicidal people, connect with them and offer
them hope to help them get through the immediate crisis and get themselves help.
The student helpline on campus is also
a service meant to help Aggies. While the
helpline welcomes all callers with all types of
questions, they do get calls from students conSee Prevention on page 2

Phone app puts A&M in students’ pockets
Texas A&M announced an update for its
mobile apps Thursday. The application
caters to the way students want to
receive information. “The use of smart
phones is projected to increase by more
than 50 percent this year alone, so we
need to make Texas A&M’s online content
available in a format that is easy-to-use
and ﬁts today’s mobile lifestyle,” said
Jason Cook, vice president for marketing
and communications. Originally released
in June 2009, TAMUmobile apps came
for the iPhone and Blackberry. In the
latest edition, there are ﬁve new sub-

applications — Library, Dining, Images,
Get Help and Bus Routes. The library
sub-application can, in one tap, give you
instant connection to a campus librarian
in the “Ask a Librarian” feature. The
dining and bus routes sub-applications
give the students locations of their
services, as well as hours of operation.
Students can search University images
with the images sub-application. If a
student needs to call to the University
Police or student counseling, the Get Help
sub-application has the numbers.
Kyle Cunningham, staff writer

Aggieland Fitness Dome is the BEST
gym in College Station!
Come by and let us PROVE it to you!
Tiffany Cornelius â&#x20AC;&#x201D; SPECIAL TO THE BATTALION

As part of Campus Safety Awareness Week, students
gather to watch the second annual Mock Residence
Room Burn, sponsored by Environmental Health Safety
and Residence Life, in order to show how quickly a fire
can spread.
ent
Studerships
b
Memailable!
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sidering taking their own life.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;We provide support, information, referrals and crisis intervention,â&#x20AC;? said Susan
Vavra, the HelpLine coordinator. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We take
a wide variety of phone calls â&#x20AC;&#x201D; anything
from inquiring information about a football

Special to The Battalion
The third of five open forums this month happened
Thursday to discuss facility
improvement on campus.
Texas A&M President R.
Bowen Loftin opened the
meeting noting that in the
past A&M has not been able
to put resources into building
structures.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Because of that,â&#x20AC;? Loftin
said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;we have tried to put
forward a process to enable
us to.â&#x20AC;?
The design process encourages public input to
understand student and
community needs. This utilization of this process has
allowed A&M to near completion on a new engineering
building and to begin construction on a new humanities building, Loftin said.
A&M is home to the sixth
largest student body in the
country with a population
exceeding 49,000. Because
the number of students is
steadily increasing each year,
improvement in facilities is
a main concern for guaranteeing each student the opti-

game to a conversation that starts out with
a person telling us they are suicidal. We are
user friendly, so they can ask us anything.â&#x20AC;?
Katie Greiner, a lecturer for the English
Language Institute, has been to two of the
training sessions Hope teaches.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;They were really honest about situations,â&#x20AC;? Greiner said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some of it is hard
to hear but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s realistic. It helped me with
how I interact with students. I found that
[the information] was extremely useful, and

mum college experience.
Lallah Howard, executive
associate vice president for
the Division of Operations,
said facility services include
custodial assistance, landscaping and maintenance
services. A great challenge
is presented specifically with
maintenance, she said.
To ensure facility improvements, a deferred
maintenance plan is under
development. There is a
need for prioritization of
maintenance funding to
ensure facility projects are
completed in a timely manner, said Russell Cross, the
interim head for the Department of Animal Sciences
and chair for the Deferred
Maintenance Task Force.
A&M officials are working diligently to ensure that
these improvements are
based on student needs.
Other issues discussed
Thursday included shortage
of campus classrooms, the
need for better campus recycling, negative effects of custodial staff decrease and the
demolition of three Northside dorms for fall 2012.

I would recommend it to teachers, students
and everybody.â&#x20AC;?
A group within the Student Counseling
Services called Survivors of Suicide helps
those who have lost someone to suicide.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;We need the eyes and ears of people
to recognize and refer them to the help
that can save their life,â&#x20AC;? Hope said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The
counseling center here is one of the best in
the nation and if they can get to us we are
almost guaranteed to save their life.â&#x20AC;?